Steam pipes at Cenovus' Christina Lake SAGD facility near the community of Conklin, located south of Fort McMurray, Alta., in this May 2012 file photo. (Vincent McDermott/Postmedia Network File Photo)Vince Mcdermott / Vince Mcdermott/Today Staff

By Stewart Muir

On previous attempts to reach into his toolbox for a tool with which to destroy the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX), British Columbia’s environment minister had until now managed to lay his hands on a few wrenches to throw into the works.

Mostly we’ve been treated to a passive-aggressive performance to obstruct the issuance of necessary (and earned) permits allowing work to proceed on a project that the Government of Canada had already approved.

Last week, however, George Heyman reached into the B.C. NDP toolbox once more. Another spanner to throw in the works? No, it turns out he had plucked out a live grenade. He then proceeded to pull the pin.

British Columbia’s NDP government now wants to restrict shipments of oilsands crude in pipelines and on railways cars in the province through a series of proposed new rules that is set to create additional uncertainty for Kinder Morgan Canada’s $7.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

The reaction from Alberta premier Rachel Notley was swift and furious.

Polls consistently show that far more British Columbians support than oppose the TMX project, an investment to improve Canada’s ability to earn the foreign coin required to import MRI machines, orange juice, iPhones, and all of the other things we do not, or cannot, make ourselves.

Critics of the TMX project like to state it will bring but a few, temporary jobs to British Columbia while it is being built. This is a sketchy claim that overlooks the fact that B.C. residents who commute to jobs in Alberta bring home up to $2-billion in paycheques a year, supporting families all across the province.

The pipeline to the Pacific creates much-needed access to global markets for Canadian oil products so Canada will no longer have to sell its non-renewable resources at a deep discount to the U.S., i.e. oil companies in the United States.

Climate policy dictates transition to lower carbon sources of energy, but we are still a long ways from having reliable alternatives. On one recent day, Alberta’s 752 wind turbines were producing a mere 0.01% of the province’s electricity. For an all-wind strategy, Alberta would have to build at least 7.5 million turbines.

Long maligned as “dirty oil that should be left in the ground,” Alberta bitumen is subject to intensive innovation reducing its carbon footprint. A process to “de-asphalt” bitumen means fuels will have a 40% lower carbon footprint than that produced today in the United States. That is just one example of many.

The federal government is rolling out a $1.5-billion coastal safety plan and scientific research on the effects of diluted bitumen. It turns out that this much-maligned product floats on water – not a big surprise to anyone with salad dressing in the fridge.

A small number of pipeline-opposing First Nations living an easy drive from Vancouver television stations have created a dire impression with public, yet the 38 First Nations who have signed on to support TMX, to help escape their rural poverty, never appear on the nightly news.

Heyman’s hope is to slow down the TMX project so its backers at Kinder Morgan eventually walk away.

Alberta has bargained on TMX completion. Ottawa suspects its national carbon strategy will fall apart if the B.C. NDP gambit succeeds because Notley’s government would stand a lesser chance of winning re-election in 2019. A new United Conservative regime in Alberta would do all it could to withdraw the province’s carbon commitments.

Heyman is holding a live grenade. Will the pipeline proposers walk away or will B.C. blow up the national carbon strategy? That’s the multi-billion dollar question in Canadian politics today. Over to you, Justin Trudeau.

Stewart Muir is executive director of B.C. Resource Works and writes for Canadians for Affordable Energy.

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